republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2026/hb-1234.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Land development; definitions, solar canopies in surface parking areas, delayed effective date."
description: "Land development; solar canopies in parking areas. Provides that any locality may include in its land development ordinances a provision that requires that an applicant must install a solar canopy over designated surface parking areas. Such provisions shall apply only to nonresidential parking areas with 100 or more new off-street contiguous parking spaces and may require coverage of up to 50 percent of the surface parking area. The bill provides that an ordinance adopted pursuant to this bill shall be subject to various additional requirements and shall allow for deviations, in whole or in part, from the requirements of the ordinance when its strict application would prevent the development of uses and densities otherwise allowed by the locality's zoning or development ordinance or when a property owner shows that the solar canopy, if installed as otherwise required under the ordinance, will generate less than 75 percent of the electricity that would be expected, given the nameplate capacity of the solar modules installed on such canopy, if the canopy were to be installed at another location in the locality without surrounding impediments to insolation such as buildings or shading vegetation. Finally, the bill provides that the applicant or owner may use the electric energy generated from such solar canopy to offset the consumption of the parking lot or adjoining building served under the same account. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027. This bill incorporates HB 457 and is identical to SB 26."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 1234"
citation: "Virginia HB 1234 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Briana D. Sewell"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 31
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2026-01-14"
last_action: "2026-04-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/49c506d7-486f-4552-8892-39aa7f6944a0"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1234"
source_hash: "4a36a266ccc636c9919f50decf49a4f54ae5fdcdef404a58d0f19486ab43363e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1234 (2026) — Land development; definitions, solar canopies in surface parking areas, delayed effective date.

Land development; solar canopies in parking areas. Provides that any locality may include in its land development ordinances a provision that requires that an applicant must install a solar canopy over designated surface parking areas. Such provisions shall apply only to nonresidential parking areas with 100 or more new off-street contiguous parking spaces and may require coverage of up to 50 percent of the surface parking area. The bill provides that an ordinance adopted pursuant to this bill shall be subject to various additional requirements and shall allow for deviations, in whole or in part, from the requirements of the ordinance when its strict application would prevent the development of uses and densities otherwise allowed by the locality's zoning or development ordinance or when a property owner shows that the solar canopy, if installed as otherwise required under the ordinance, will generate less than 75 percent of the electricity that would be expected, given the nameplate capacity of the solar modules installed on such canopy, if the canopy were to be installed at another location in the locality without surrounding impediments to insolation such as buildings or shading vegetation. Finally, the bill provides that the applicant or owner may use the electric energy generated from such solar canopy to offset the consumption of the parking lot or adjoining building served under the same account. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2027. This bill incorporates HB 457 and is identical to SB 26.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1087851.PDF)
2. **Counties, Cities and Towns Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1132680.PDF)
3. **Local Government Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1190315.PDF)
4. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1203642.PDF)

## Votes

- Passage R — **21–18** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitute — **20–1** (pass) · lower
- H VOTE: — **76–22** (pass) · lower
- H VOTE: — **67–30** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Local Government with substitute — **8–7** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Briana D. Sewell — primary (person)
- Adele Y. McClure — cosponsor (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Dan I. Helmer — cosponsor (person)
- Destiny LeVere Bolling — cosponsor (person)
- John Chilton McAuliff — cosponsor (person)
- Karen Keys-Gamarra — cosponsor (person)
- Kathy K.L. Tran — cosponsor (person)
- Nadarius E. Clark — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Cole — cosponsor (person)
- Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
- Phil M. Hernandez — cosponsor (person)
- Rae Cousins — cosponsor (person)
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2026-01-14** Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26102478D `filing, introduction`
- **2026-01-14** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-28** Assigned HCCT sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2026-02-06** Incorporates HB457 (Krizek)
- **2026-02-06** House committee offered
- **2026-02-06** Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with substitute (20-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-06** Committee substitute printed 26107392D-H1 `substitution`
- **2026-02-10** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2026-02-11** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-11** committee substitute agreed to `substitution`
- **2026-02-11** Engrossed by House - committee substitute `substitution`
- **2026-02-12** Read third time and passed House (76-Y 22-N 0-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-02-13** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
- **2026-02-13** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2026-03-02** Reported from Local Government with substitute (8-Y 7-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-03-03** Committee substitute printed 26109040D-S1 `substitution`
- **2026-03-03** Rules suspended
- **2026-03-03** Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
- **2026-03-03** Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
- **2026-03-04** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2026-03-04** Local Government Substitute agreed to
- **2026-03-04** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute `substitution`
- **2026-03-04** Passed Senate with substitute (21-Y 18-N 0-A) `passage`
- **2026-03-06** Senate substitute agreed to by House (67-Y 30-N 0-A) `substitution`
- **2026-03-13** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-03-13** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1234ER) `passage`
- **2026-03-13** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2026-03-13** Signed by President `passage`
- **2026-03-14** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 14, 2026 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-14** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 757 (effective 7/1/2026) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/49c506d7-486f-4552-8892-39aa7f6944a0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).